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Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms often struggle with heightened sensitivity and arousal in response to perceived threats. Moreover, interpersonal dysfunction in GAD has become increasingly a focus of empirical investigation and treatment, given the possibility that responses to social interactions may contribute to GAD symptom maintenance. Laboratory studies and cross-sectional trait assessments of interpersonal problems comprise most of our understanding of interpersonal dysfunction in GAD. However, how GAD symptoms interact with perceived interpersonal threats to predict affective responses (increased arousal, lower valence) within daily life remains poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine effects of in vivo social perceptions on state affect, and how GAD symptoms may moderate those relationships. Participants (N = 161) completed baseline measures of trait GAD and depression symptoms (as a covariate). Then participants completed 30 social interaction surveys over the subsequent 10 days. In each survey, participants rated interaction partners’ dominant, cold, and immoral behavior (each conceptualized as interpersonal threats) as well as their own arousal and valence in response to the behavior. Multilevel modeling analyses of between- and within-person effects revealed that mean perceptions of cold and immoral behavior predicted higher arousal and lower valence as hypothesized, whereas mean perceived dominance unexpectedly predicted only lower valence. All within-person fluctuations in social perceptions predicted both higher arousal and lower valence. Regarding the moderating effects, GAD symptoms unexpectedly buffered the effect of average perceived cold behavior on valence and strengthened the effect of average perceived immoral behavior on valence. These results provide a deeper understanding of how social perceptions may contribute to affect in naturalistic interactions, and add to the literature on interpersonal correlates of GAD symptoms.

The costs in terms of both monetary and human lives lost due to substance abuse in the United States is well documented and it is publicized that it is increasing. There has been a large amount of research completed that has examined methamphetamine users, heroin users, and the drug-crime nexus; however, there is a paucity of research that provides insight into these users’ arrest experiences. Using a phenomenological approach, this research examined methamphetamine and heroin users’ incidents of being arrested to gain a greater understanding of their lived experiences. The analysis was based on interviews that were conducted with five adults that had been regular users of methamphetamine and/or heroin and had been arrested for an offense that was either directly or indirectly a result of their drug use. The results revealed four general themes that indicated: (1) the users felt they were living self-destructive lifestyles at the time of their arrest; (2) they experienced shock and confusion at the time of the arrest and afterwards; (3) interactions with the police were commonplace and they each had mixed experiences dealing with the police; (4) each of the participants expressed directly or indirectly that they needed to be arrested, complete long term confinement, or the possibility of long-term confinement, after a charge to successfully achieve sobriety and positive changes in their lives. These findings were discussed, reviewing evaluations of drug court diversion, incarceration, or the concept of an individual hitting rock-bottom as a prerequisite for lasting positive change and rehabilitation. Future research comparing the success of these post-arrest outcomes is suggested.

Early life stress is a prevalent problem affecting many worldwide and can be experienced in a variety of ways, including limited access to resources as in many low socioeconomic status households. In humans, exposure to stress early in life is linked to various psychiatric conditions such as substance use disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and gambling. One characteristic that these disorders share is elevated impulsivity. Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct and often behaviors are classified as either an impulsive choice (e.g., inability to delay gratification) or an impulsive action (e.g., inability to inhibit premature responses). In the first set of experiments presented here, we characterize the limited bedding and nesting model (LBN) of early life adversity in rodents, in which rat dams and their pups are housed in a limited resource environment from postnatal day (PND) 2 through 9. This model works by inducing stress in the dams, which alters their maternal care behaviors towards pups. As a result, this altered care can be stressful for the developing pups. We have found that LBN exposure promoted resilience to addiction-related phenotypes in adult male, but not female rats. Specifically, LBN reduced impulsive choice, morphine self-administration, and nucleus accumbens (NAc) glutamate transmission in males, effects not seen in females. Additionally, changes in NAc gene transcription unique to LBN males may contribute to resilience. We build on these findings in the second set of experiments, which explores whether LBN alters impulsive action, risky decision-making, and the gene transcriptome of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). We found that LBN increased impulsive action in males. Additionally, we found LBN exposure in rats across sex reduces risky choice. These changes in behavior were accompanied by highly specific changes in gene transcription in the OFC, which is a brain region that mediates both impulsive and risky decision-making behaviors. The identification of genes and signaling pathways that are altered by LBN in the male OFC lays the groundwork for future studies investigating the mechanisms by which early life stress alters addiction-related phenotypes. / Psychology

The level of diversity among colleges and universities is at its greatest level. This level of diversity has proven to be beneficial in several key areas for all students. With this increase in diversity, there have been other consequences as well. One form of bullying, cyberbullying, has been on the rise due to greater use of technology, increase of social media platforms, accessibility of smartphones and a shift from in-person instruction to virtual instruction. Although copious amounts of research can be conducted on cyberbullying on adolescents, there is a deficiency of information on whether cyberbullying exists within higher education as well as the impact it may have on students. This was a mixed methods study which included a survey of the undergraduate population within a university on the east coast of the United States. There were a total of 148 survey respondents and four interviews conducted. The findings indicate that that cyberbullying does, in fact, exist within colleges and universities at the undergraduate level. In addition, different groups of people experience cyberbullying at different levels and frequencies. Also, it has been noted that cyberbullying impacts these different groups in a variety of different ways. Some groups were not impacted at all, while others were impacted a great deal. The implications from this study demonstrate that there is the need for improvement in a couple of key areas pertaining to policy and practice. Those areas are the training for faculty staff and administration, support services and additional programming available for students. / Educational Leadership

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Violent physical behavior incidents were collected from a sample of 81 out-patient mental health charts from 1972-1992, the purpose of which was to determine if an association existed between violent behaviors in intact biological families and intact stepfamilies. A chi square test $\chi\sp2$ = 1.89 with a significance level of.388 showed no difference in the incidence of violent behavior in biological and stepfamilies. Biological families accounted for a larger percentage of violent behaviors (63.2%) and total number of current perpetrators (44%) than stepfamilies (36.8%) and current stepfamily perpetrators (26%). Victims were overwhelmingly children (89.5%) clustering between the ages of 9-18 (84.2%). Of these, 63% were male and 37% were female. Slapping accounted for the most prevalent and repeatedly reoccuring type of violent behavior (80%) perpetrated of all violent behaviors across all ages and in both family types.

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